Michigan Might Get New Cable Company

Sure, those kinds of mergers happen all the time. But to do so, Comcast might have to trade some its customers here in Michigan with Charter Communications, another local cable provider, to make the deal work.

To keep Comcast's subscriber total under 30 million, an industry benchmark, Charter might absorb nearly 2.5 million customers from Comcast to help make Comcast's merger with Time Warner likely to happen.

The deal is conditioned on federal and state regulators approving the Time Warner Cable sale, and would make Charter the nation’s second-largest cable operator with 8.2 million video subscribers under management. The new SpinCo will remain a separate entity for four years, at which time its board could decide to sell -- and, in a consolidated industry landscape, it’s easy to envision Charter making a bid to fold the company into its existing national market."

That bold part is important.

Before Comcast made its bid on Time Warner, Charter did. Charter wanted to be the biggest cable company in the land. Oh, and in case you didn't know, Charter is owned by Paul Allen, one of a few billionaires Bill Gates helped make at Microsoft.